Micaela Diamond (Broadway‘s Parade, TV’s Grotesquerie) and Will Pullen (Broadway’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Netflix’s The Unforgivable) have been added to the cast of Manhattan Theatre Club‘s upcoming Broadway revival of Clifford Odets’ landmark 1935 American drama Awake and Sing!
Diamond and Pullen join the previously announced Danny Burstein, Jessica Hecht and Jeremy Shamos. Additional casting will be announced later.
The new production, directed by Tyne Rafaeli, will begin previews on Tuesday, December 15, at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, with opening night on Thursday, January 7, 2027. MTC announced the new cast members today.
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The synopsis: “It’s the 1930s, and the Bronx is a furnace. New ideas clash with the old amidst the poverty and shattered promises of the Great Depression. And three generations of the Berger family, trapped inside their cramped tenement, struggle to hold different visions of an American dream.” MTC describes the play as a “classic battle between hope and disillusionment.”
Diamond will play Hennie Berger, the family’s young daughter, and Pullen will play Ralph Berger, Hennie’s younger brother.
Diamond is a Tony and Grammy Award nominated actor for her star turn as Lucille Frank in Parade on Broadway. She made her Broadway debut as Babe, the youngest Cher, in The Cher Show. Most recently, she appeared in the The Seat of Our Pants, at the Public Theater, a musical based on Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth. On TV she most recently appeared as series regular Sister Megan Duval in Ryan Murphy’s Grotesquerie.
Pullen can next be seen reprising his role in the sequel to Aaron Schneider’s feature Greyhound, opposite Tom Hanks for Apple, and can currently be seen in Ridley Scott and Peter Craig’s Apple limited series Dope Thief. He recently starred in Angus MacLachlan’s feature A Little Prayer and Nora Fingscheidt’s Netflix feature The Unforgivable. He had a recurring role in the Apple series Dickinson, an on Broadway he starred as Jem in Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird. He recently appeared in Adam Bock’s play The Receptionist at Second Stage, and additional stage credits include his Broadway debut in Lynn Nottage’s Sweat. Other screen credits include a FX’s The Americans and Jenji Kohan’s HBO pilot The Devil You Know.
Awake and Sing! originally premiered on Broadway in 1935, produced by the legendary Group Theatre, and helped establish Odets as a major voice in American theater. Subsequent Broadway stagings opened in 1939, 1984 and, most recently, 2006 with a cast that included Mark Ruffalo, Ben Gazzara and, in the roles of Hennie and Ralph, Lauren Ambrose and Pablo Schreiber.
The MTC production will feature scenic and costume design by David Zinn, lighting design by Isabella Byrd, and original music and sound design by Daniel Kluger. Awake and Sing! is produced in association with Brian and Dayna Lee, and Nicole and Stephanie Kramer.
